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Characterization of Submesoscale Turbulence in the East/Japan Sea Using Geostationary Ocean Color Satellite Images
Author(s) -
Choi J.,
Park Y.G.,
Kim W.,
Kim Y. H.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2019gl083892
Subject(s) - geostrophic wind , geostationary orbit , ocean color , satellite , turbulence , geostationary operational environmental satellite , geology , turbulence kinetic energy , geostrophic current , kinetic energy , climatology , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , physics , astronomy , quantum mechanics
Abstract Submesoscale processes are key in understanding physical and biological phenomena near the surface, but there remains a lack of observational evidence over large areas. We used hourly images from a geostationary satellite that can resolve variation in surface ocean color over an area of few hundred kilometers. The temporal variation in the surface chlorophyll a distribution captured by the satellite images was first used to generate a submesoscale‐permitting velocity field, from which we calculated the turbulence statistics such as kinetic energy spectra, velocity structure functions, and energy flux. Application to the April scenes in the East/Japan Sea showed that the kinetic energy spectra had a transition scale at 50 km that suggested two spectral regimes following k −3 and k −5/3 , implying the coexistence of quasi‐geostrophic turbulence and surface quasi‐geostrophic turbulence. The chlorophyll a scalar spectrum suggested two spectral regimes of k −5/3 and k −1 with a transition at 3 km.